Lewis Hamilton had to watch Charles Leclerc gift Ferrari their first Grand Prix podium of the 2025 F1 season in Saudi Arabia, while he could only get a seventh-place finish.
A whopping 30.969 seconds even split the Scuderia duo at the chequered flag on Sunday as Hamilton finished the Saudi Arabian GP in the same position the 40-year-old started. Leclerc had qualified in P4, but was able to pass Mercedes’ George Russell with a different strategy.
Ferrari gave Leclerc a tyre offset by pitting the Monegasque to move from the medium tyres onto the hards on Lap 38/50, compared to Mercedes stopping Russell on L20. Hamilton also changed from the mediums to hards on L23 after falling almost 14 seconds behind Leclerc.
Lewis Hamilton’s pace deficit to Charles Leclerc in the Saudi Arabian GP was ‘inexplicable’
Hamilton did not match Leclerc’s speed all weekend at the Saudi Arabian GP, with the Ferrari drivers’ best Q3 laps even 0.531s apart. Bernie Collins noted that Hamilton did not maximise the Jeddah track like Leclerc in qualifying and left a lot of space to the walls ‘the whole way’.
His problems appeared early, as well, and it saw Ferrari surprise Hamilton with the speed he lost each sector in FP3 in Saudi Arabia. His problems then continued into the race, when the Briton spent his time fading ever further from the rear of Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes.
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| Position | Drivers’ Championship | Points |
| 1 |
Oscar Piastri |
99 |
| 2 |
Lando Norris |
89 |
| 3 |
Max Verstappen |
87 |
| 4 |
George Russell |
73 |
| 5 |
Charles Leclerc |
47 |
| 6 |
Andrea Kimi Antonelli |
38 |
| 7 |
Lewis Hamilton |
31 |
Ex-F1 team owner Gian Carlo Minardi also finds Hamilton’s lack of pace in the Saudi Arabian GP compared to Leclerc ‘inexplicable’ given the standards he set to become a seven-time F1 champion. Leclerc was also able to hide the issues Ferrari still face with the SF-25 in Jeddah.
“Leclerc’s Grand Prix is also to be applauded,” Minardi said on his website. “Not only did he give Ferrari their first podium of the season in a GP, but he hid and lessened the car’s real problems, which were instead very evident with Hamilton, who had a pace that did not line up with a seven-time world champion. At the present time, it is rather inexplicable.”
Lewis Hamilton is committed to finding a solution to his issues adapting to Ferrari’s car
Leclerc not only managed to hide the problems that Ferrari have with the SF-25 in the Saudi Arabian GP but the 27-year-old also secured their first podium of the 2025 F1 season with a P3 finish. He had enough speed at the end to finish 1.092s ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Hamilton won Ferrari the Shanghai Sprint from pole position but has not been able to match that potential in a Grand Prix. The Briton penned his best Grand Prix result as a Ferrari driver to date with fifth in the Bahrain Grand Prix, with Hamilton’s average finishing position P7.25.
That average is excluding his P6 before Ferrari’s double disqualification in the Chinese Grand Prix, which would take Hamilton’s average to P7. He is still having to adapt to the SF-25 after joining from Mercedes and Martin Brundle claims Ferrari accept Hamilton needs more time.
The Briton is fully committed to improving his situation and he proved it in Jeddah. Hamilton stayed in the Saudi Arabian GP paddock late into the night on Friday and on Saturday to help Ferrari go through his data to try to find a solution for his lack of speed compared to Leclerc.
